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ADFF Presents Fun Films for Kids and Poignant Works about Childhood for Grownups

Today, the Abu Dhabi Film Festival's popular Family
Day returns with a funfilled lineup of free screenings and
hands-on activities, including face painting, live entertainers and
the chance to walk the red carpet.

Launched with great success last year, Family Day allows parents
to relax and catch one of the day's films for grownups while kids
enjoy cinema magic in one of the special screenings for young
audiences. Part of ADFF's "On Location" at Marina Mall, Family Day
2011 takes place at VOX Cinemas from 1:00 p.m. onwards.

Family Day films are not just for young audiences: Early film
pioneer and visionary George Méliès's short A Trip to
the Moon(1902), the world's first science fiction
film, will be screened in a newly restored hand-colored version
featuring a new original soundtrack composed by the French band Air
- an absolute highlight of the Festival this year.

The 16-minute masterpiece will be presented by Serge Bromberg, a
film historian and showman in the tradition of George Méliès
himself. Bromberg's "Saved from the Flames" program, kindly
supported by the French Embassy in Abu Dhabi, also includes silent
films with live piano accompaniment, an early color film by the
creator of Mickey Mouse, and Buster Keaton's longlost final short,
The Love Nest (1923). Family Day 2011 also features a
selection of animated short films by Swedish director Johan
Hagelback at 3:45 p.m. at VOX 3.

Revered storyteller Hirokazu Kore-Eda's new film I
Wish is a wistful fable about brothers separated by
their parents' divorce that will enthrall audiences of all ages.
When the boys hear a rumor that a miracle will occur at the moment
that the new bullet trains connecting their cities first pass, they
hatch a plan to fix their family plight. KoreEda's charming tribute
to youthful spirit and optimism is screened at 3:15 p.m. at VOX
1.

Outside of the Family Day line-up, today's Festival program
features a 2 number of heartrending films about childhood
and youth aimed at a grown-up audience. Maïwenn's
character-driven, gritty narrative Poliss follows the daily grind
for the officers of the Child Protection Unit in northern Paris,
showing the dedicated cops on and off the beat, facing their work
and lives with a requisite dose of humor. Screening at 9:15 p.m.,
VOX 6.

Two films on today's program deal with the fate of orphaned
children growing up in precarious circumstances. In My Mother's
Arms is the highly anticipated new film by Iraqi
brothers Atia and Mohamed Jabarah Al Daradji, a
documentary about a makeshift foster home for orphaned boys in
Baghdad. Faced by eviction, the boys find distraction by staging a
musical performance, giving voice to their longing for a mother's
unconditional love.Part of the Documentary Competition and
supported by the Festival's SANAD film fund, In My Mother's
Arms is screened tonight, 6:45 p.m. at VOX 8.

Lucky is the affecting story of an orphaned Zulu boy
struggling to find a future in the harsh urban landscape of Durban.
Based on director Avie Luthra's BAFTA-nominated 2005 short, the
film is both a spirited coming-ofage drama and a frank
portrait of contemporary South Africa. (6:30pm, VOX
1).

Capping off the day's films is a Gala Screening of The
Double, one of the highlights of this year's Showcase
section. Director/writer Michael Brandt, actor Topher Grace and
screenwriter Derek Haas will be taking to the red carpet for the
film's world premiere here in Abu Dhabi. Richard Gere, Topher Grace
and Martin Sheen star in Michael Brandt's new spin on the classic
spy thriller. When the legendary - and supposedly dead - Soviet
assassin "Cassius" resurfaces, CIA boss Tom Highland (Martin Sheen)
calls in retired operative Paul Shepherdson (Richard Gere) and
pairs him up with rookie FBI agent Ben Geary (Topher Grace) to
track the Russian killer down. This screening takes place at 9:30
p.m., at Abu Dhabi Theater.

Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel of the French electronic
band air host Scoring the Moon: A Master Class with
Air this afternoon. Godin and Dunckel have been creating
ethereal, genre-defying music since their debut in 1998 with the
album Moon Safari. Fittingly, these musical pioneers were selected
to compose and perform a new score for the Cannes premiere of 3 the
landmark full-color restoration of Georges Méliès' 1902
masterpiece, A Trip to the Moon. Air are no strangers to the film
world, having won critical and popular acclaim for their score to
Sofia Coppola's 2000 debut The Virgin Suicides. Co-presented by the
French Embassy, Abu Dhabi. This special event take place at
Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, Saker Ballroom A, at 2:00 p.m.

One of the films in this year's Narrative Feature
Competition is We Need to Talk About Kevin, in which Tilda
Swinton delivers a searing performance as Eva, a woman who never
really wanted to be a mother - and certainly not the mother of an
unlovable, manipulative boy who cruelly taunts her for her
inability to impose her authority. Beautifully adapted by director
Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) from Lionel Shriver's international
bestseller, the film is screened at 9:00 p.m., VOX 1.

Tonight's Waterfront Film is Rough
Hands, Mohamed Asli's bold follow-up to his acclaimed debut
In Casablanca, Angels Don't Fly. Populated by characters
who bend the system to get by in a corrupt police state, the plot
revolves around a barber with an underground business pushing
paperwork through government officials, who conspires to help a
neighbor to emigrate to Spain so she can reunite with her fiancé.
Screening at the open-air cinema at the Fairmont Waterfront, at
7:30 p.m.

Another new film from Morocco is The Source, part of the
Festival's Showcase of recent feature films from around the
world. Directed by Radu Mihaileanu, The Source is a
song-filled crowd pleaser that fearlessly takes on the issue of
female empowerment in the Arab world. For the women of a remote
village in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, fetching water means a
dangerous daily trek high into the mountains and back. That is
until Leila (Leila Bekhti) organizes a "love strike" - no affection
toward the men until they build a water pipeline (5:45 p.m., Abu
Dhabi Theater).

David Dusa's feature debut Flowers of Evil, also in the
Showcase line-up, is a kinetic film that personalizes a historic
event by setting an intimate love story squarely in the middle of
it. After fleeing to Paris in the wake of the 2009 elections,
Iranian student Anahita meets the free-spirited parkour dancer
Rachid. As Anahita obsessively tracks real video footage from the
frontlines of the protests, the turmoil in Tehran threatens to
contaminate 4 their budding romance. Showing at 9:15 p.m. at VOX
2.

Saturday night also brings a special screening of The Beginning
and the End (1961), part of the Festival's retrospective
Naguib Mahfouz - Man of Cinema, in celebration of
the 100th anniversary of the birth of the seminal Egyptian writer,
who was the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize for
Literature.Directed by Salah Abu Seif and based on Naguib Mahfouz's
much-loved novel of the same name, the film is a masterpiece of
Egyptian cinema, starring Farid Shawki and Omar Sharif. It tells
the tragic tale of a penniless widow, who attempts to keep her
family from sliding into misery. Screening tonight at 9:00 p.m.,
VOX 3.

The Documentary Feature Competition features the
world premiere of SANAD grantee Safinez Bousbia's El
Gusto, Algeria's version of Buena Vista Social Club.
Told through the story of a group of Muslim and Jewish musicians
who meet 50 years after being separated by the Algerian War, the
film is a celebration of the power of music to transcend
boundaries.Screening today at 4:30 p.m., VOX 5.

Two films selected for New Horizons Competition,
the Festival's section for first- and second-time filmmakers, are
screened today. This includes the world premiere of Almost in
Love, by Sam Neave (Sundance pick Cry Funny Happy).
Flush with indie spirit and shot in two uninterrupted 40-minute
takes, Almost in Love tracks a love triangle among a group of
thirtysomething New Yorkers on the universal quest for love and
identity (9:30 p.m., VOX 4).

Stories Only Exist When Remembered, Julia Murat's elegant first
feature, is reminiscent of a piece of haute couture: carefully cut
and lovingly assembled. In a remote valley of northeastern Brazil,
life moves along slowly for a community of aging citizens, until a
young photographer arrives, opening a new set of eyes on the
village. This screening takes place at 7:00 p.m., also at VOX
4.

If a Tree Falls:A Story of the Earth Liberation
Front, by Academy Award® nominee Marshall Curry (Street
Fight), is part of the Festival's Our World
Competition for films that raise awareness about global
environmental issues. The film explores the controversial Earth
Liberation Front through 5 Daniel McGowan, whose past ties to ELF
land him on trial for terrorism, turning his story into a harrowing
examination of the consequences of political activism in post-9/11
America. 6:30 p.m., VOX 3.

Today's line-up also offers captivating insights into current
Emirati filmmaking, with two programs of short films from the
Emirates Film Competition being screened at Marina
Mall this afternoon (2:45 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., both VOX 2).